WIUV is off the air, will stream online

WIUV will no longer be broadcasting on air. It will now only be streaming online. Photo Credit to Amanda Brault/ Castleton Spartan

Castleton University has decided to take WIUV 91.3 FM off the air and onto the internet to be exclusively streamed 24 hours a day.

With this decision, the school no longer owns the letters “WIUV.”

For years, you could not walk into the Campus Center or any other buildings on campus without hearing WIUV tunes on the radio. It had grown and developed at the school.

But what was once a thriving station at Castleton, WIUV has seen a decline in listenership from the public. Matt Patry, director of Student Activities and a former student at Castleton University remembers that thriving time.

“It was a much bigger organization back then,” said Patry. “The radio station was one of the top communication forces on campus.”

In the 1980s, radio was a booming culture. There were countless WIUV radio programs that went all the way into the night almost every day, ranging from reviews to music to talk shows to faculty playing their interests, he said.

Not only was the radio popular on campus at the time, it reached almost all of the Rutland County, Patry said.

“It was broadcasted very clearly to basically Pico Ski area, so the whole Rutland region had WIUV,” said Patry.

But back then there was no internet, and because of it, radio has declined its popularity over the years. Due to the internet and personal cell phones, not as many people are wanting to listen to the radio.

Student Government Association President James Wolfe said the move to streaming makes sense.

“We’ve had discussions about whether or not WIUV should remain as a broadcasting station or whether it’s time to upgrade it to the digital station or talk about the different outcomes of it and where it’s headed in the future,” he said.

Wolfe said that the radio isn’t being consumed that regularly anymore and that other forms of playing the radio is needed. Transferring the radio online does bring up some other questions like is it worth it? What will that mean for the delivery of the new radio, and how will students and faculty be able to participate in it?

“I loved it. It was a lot of fun and I’m hoping to get back with it,” said Devin Poslusny, who hosted a WIUV show about sports.

He said he really enjoyed getting to be on the air and having it live was an excitement.

“They’re always looking for new ideas. So anything new is good, anything we’ve done in the past is good. Whatever we can do to make it student run as opposed to just a machine continuously playing song after song,” said Kayla Laurie, who hosts a “Broadway” show featuring different Broadway songs on the air and detailing facts about Broadway.

While moving forward and moving onto the internet, there always things to keep and improve.

“Well, I think that what I’d like to see come back is more diversity in shows,” said Patry.

Wolfe said he wants it to thrive again.

“Keep the legacy because it really is a legacy,” he said.

A meeting was held Feb. 19 to further discuss the change, but it came after The Spartan went to press.

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